Curiosity Killed the Cat
by mirai aria
Summary: Set shortly after Episode 25 and, well, back in the real world. Muraken finds himself thinking and thinking... and thinking some more in class. This can't be the best place for thinking....


Disclaimer: Rawr. Muraken doesn't belong to me, his cute little existence is still safe from my sporking abilities…err. -coughs- KKM belongs to its creators… just, not me, I am a wee, little, insignificant fangirl who likes to write fanfiction…

Summary: Set shortly after Episode 25 and, well, back in the real world. Muraken finds himself thinking and thinking... and thinking some more in class. This can't be the best place for thinking....

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**.curiosity killed the cat.**

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Murata Ken was a very curious boy. He'd always been curious and then, just as much as he was curious, he was extroverted and utterly, utterly shameless. So when one of his friends began displaying the strangest, or rather the most curiosity-inducing, things, he instantly, _naturally_, became curious. The first time it happened, it hadn't been _too_ odd. It didn't stand out, really. Getting your head flushed down the toilet for standing up against people who wanted to 'harass' and steal your 'acquaintance's lunch money, fainting and then being found with some extra things (and a thong) just didn't quite make it into Ken's "Odd Things I've Seen ©" List. When you drop into a pond in your baseball uniform and then turn up later in _obviously_ different clothes – try your birthday suit – then well, you're a definite shoo-in for Ken's list.

'This time, he somehow magically lost all his clothes in the pool' Ken recalled, absentmindedly tapping the tip of his pen on his lips and pouting as he recalled the other day's events. _'And was unconscious for a pretty long time… hmm. Then he was all… relieved too! And all… Hmm…,'_ he added mentally with a slight nod and then watched the subject in question. Shibuya Yuuri was seated in front of him, just a few seats away and that gave Ken the advantage of watching without, well, without the subject knowing he was being watched. He was really getting used to being in the same cram school with Yuuri and, of course, their wonderful seating arrangements. The art of stalking was something Ken liked to practice sometimes, unknowingly because, for all he cared, what he was doing was 'satisfying his own curiosity' and definitely _not_ stalking.

'I mean how do you lose your clothes in a pool?' Ken wondered and when he heard the teacher say something about page thirty-eight and the Meiji Era, he automatically opened the book on his desk to give the illusion of attentiveness – nothing but a good cover so he could continue his observation without being interrupted. Yuuri opened his own book too, though, Ken was sure, his classmate's mind was off outside the window, like it usually was. Because, you see, he'd known Yuuri forever, sort of. They never talked, not really until Yuuri got his head flushed down the loo for him. That incident somehow triggered a sort of camaraderie between the two of them although Ken had never gotten his head flushed down the toilet and was not planning on doing so any time soon to deepen the friendship between the two of them. But Ken had always watched Yuuri because… well, because he just did! _'Unless… unless some mermaid lived in the pool and decided to molest Yuuri—_" He gasped at his own train of thoughts, not quite because it was, of course, downright absurd, but because, with Yuuri, quite nothing could be impossible. And especially if the mermaid knew he liked sporting thongs…

'But a mermaid in a swimming pool?'

Ken frowned deeply then and sank down his desk, realizing the fault in his theory. Unless the mermaid had an inter-dimensional portal handy somewhere in her person – assuming she was a she; Ken couldn't quite imagine a male mermaid harassing Yuuri no matter how cute he was – that allowed her to transport herself from one big body of water to another and knew Yuuri would be at the pool right at that time so she transported herself to the pool _and then_ harassed him then it made sense!

Ken was satisfied with that reasoning for a whole two minutes. He was even able to actually read a few lines from their latest topic in class and therefore convince their teacher he was, in fact, paying attention and not daydreaming off to some faraway land or sprouting ridiculously impossible theories about disappearing boys sucked down toilet bowls and ponds. But the two minutes passed and he found himself faced with yet another part of the big, big problem; Where would the mermaid come from assuming she, or quite possibly he, had a inter-dimensional-portal-making machine and how had she, or he, known about Yuuri's delectable existence?

This time, Ken found himself cupping his chin and risking being spotted by reclining on his chair. He kept his gaze trained on the book on his desk though, a part of his brain refused to let himself be completely given away.

'So, say, the mermaid.. or merman – whatever you call Yuuri-molesting-fishes… was from this big kingdom underwate— Oh oh! Better yet, a big big kingdom where they're not quite mermaids—er men… afterall!'

He commended himself for his brilliant idea and then stopped. That still left the question of how and why they would go and harass Yuuri and – He stopped and then remembered the look on Yuuri's face when he, so kindly because Ken never did anything that wasn't kindly, pointed out the thong Yuuri was sporting for all the world to see. Ken thought then and then drew his breath before mentally running down his latest assumption.

'Okay then, _so the mer_men' he paused on that one and took the time to remind himself that 'men' was a collective noun and could mean both female and male members of the population. '_come from this other world where they're not quite mermaids... men… and they… they…,' _Ken found himself pausing again and frowning as he struggled to continue the sentence. Finally, he resigned to the easiest reason, '_…they've wanted to meet Yuuri all along and when Yuuri was flushed down the toilet they took that as their chan—but maybe it's happened before? Okay… _assuming_ the toilet episode was the first occurrence and and…' _He tried to remember where his train, figuratively speaking, left off and then continued, '_chance, yes. And then, they sucked Yuuri down to their world—But wasn't he here all that time? …so… maybe… okay,' _He tried to think back on what happened in the Ocean World and then compared it with the events in the public toilet and the… pond. He couldn't be sure whether Yuuri's body had literally been flushed down the toilet then because when he came back with the police – he tried not to shudder at the mental image – Yuuri still had his head down the bowl. Though, his body was never quite lost at Ocean World and he was just unconscious. '_That's it!'_ he thought suddenly and grinned widely as he happily continued running his train, again, figuratively speaking.

'_So, they took Yuuri's… consciousness… soul, his other non-physical self back to their world and did… did things… and made him wear the thong! …Back then that is but next time… next time… they…'_ He paused and then added with some sort of realization, _'STOLE HIS CLOTHES!'_

He was about to commend himself yet again on his amazing deducing skills because, you know, Muraken was good at satisfying his curiosity and all that was really left was a few 'fill-in-the-gaps' when he realized half the class _and_ the subject of his train of thoughts was looking at him weirdly.

Somewhere at the back of his brain, he couldn't help but think about the old proverb that dealt with killing two birds with one stone. He couldn't be sure why though and the teacher approached him, calmly, very eerily and calmly and asked in the same eerie voice Ken knew he would,

"Who stole whose clothes, Murata-kun?"

Murata Ken, fifteen years old and as curious as any boy his age could be opened his mouth then and provided the answer as truthfully as he could.

"The mermen did."

For some reason, at the edge of his vision, Yuuri turned a few shades of blue before quickly turning away.

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It's actually humor. Wee! Actually, as I said before, the only thing that made me continue writing here is the imagery that came along with and the fact that I get to make fun of Wolfram and Co…. without actually making fun of them! :D I had fun thinking about Muraken's reaction when he finally meets the mermen… oh and much thanks to Nanya-chan who pointed out the fact that Muraken and Yuuri don't go in the same school! –She helped me fix that by suggesting the wonders of 'cram school', so we have them in cram school together! Hah!

;-)


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